Objections to a referendum in Crimea

If Gibraltar can have one, why not Crimea?

SIR – British governments have promoted referendums in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Gibraltar, which confirmed the wish of their people to remain British. No doubt the verdict of the Scottish people in September will be accepted.

Why, then, is there such objection to a referendum in Crimea, the result of which, if accepted, should help defuse tension in the region?

John Harris Penrith, Cumberland

SIR – Nikolai Tolstoyof all people should appreciate that Russians (ably assisted by a Georgian) over the past 150 years have caused as much suffering for Russia (and its neighbours) as have its invaders.

Russia has effectively rehabilitated Stalin and has not apologised for his crimes. Vladimir Putin has declared that the demise of the Soviet Union (rather than its birth) was the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the 20th century.

John Birkett

St Andrews, Fife

Migrant magnet

SIR – I employimmigrants. I would prefer, on principle, to employ British people, but they won’t come off the dole to do the work.

The Government pays them this dole, which allows them not to work, by taxing me. If the Government reduced the dole, I might get British applicants. If the dole reduction was passed on to me as a tax reduction, I could afford to pay more.

John Burke Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

VAT by any other name

SIR – Paula Bates (Letters, March 4) is correct that in America “sales tax”, not “VAT”, is shown separately on receipts, raising awareness of taxes.

Such awareness is heightened in America by all prices for goods and services being listed before sales tax. Such a practice would be useful in Britain to highlight the taxes involved in purchases, particularly when filling up the car.

Tony Manning Barton on Sea, Hampshire

Cost of 101 phone calls

SIR – I live in a rural area where we are encouraged by the police to report unusual sightings. The 101 telephone number is given as a contact for non-urgent information.

Recently I used the number for the first time, to report suspicious activity. The response of the local police was exemplary. They took the trouble to phone me back to tell me what action had been taken.

The use of the 999 number is free. But on my monthly bill I found that I had been charged for the 101. Apparently 101 attracts this charge across the country. Surely this is a triumph of bureaucracy over common sense. I know which option I shall use if the need arises again.

Philip Williams Ingoe, Northumberland

Comfort coffee

SIR – What’s with all this walking to work carrying steaming cups of coffee? I see it on television coverage from London. Are the metropolitan “elite” so pushed for time that they cannot manage a proper breakfast, or are these drinks a sort of comfort blanket against a hostile world?

To us Northerners it all looks a bit weird.

Brendan Palmer Nottingham

Magna Carta vs food

SIR – The Bishop of Durham (Letters, March 5), Frank Field MP and others draw attention to the need to feed the hungry.

Churches in this area are among those that give in-date food to the Salisbury Trussell Trust, knowing that this food goes directly to the hungry.

I am a guide in the splendid Salisbury Cathedral, which houses arguably the best copy of Magna Carta in its chapter house. The Cathedral is seeking £500,000 of Heritage Lottery funding to preserve and present better the Magna Carta to the public – an aim I support. The plan is to raise another £200,000 on top of that.

A modest 10 per cent of this latter given to the Trussell Trust would help some families in Salisbury (or Durham) not to go hungry in Lent, or later. The down side is that the Magna Carta planners would have to manage on £680,000.

I agree with the bishop: all hands to the pump.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Joseph Gilbert Salisbury, Wiltshire

The label of dementia

SIR – The Government’s plans to speed up thediagnosis of dementiato six weeks fail to take into account the immediate and catastrophic consequences to the lives of affected individuals.

Being diagnosed as having dementia makes it impossible to make a legally valid will, sign a contract, sell property, decide where and how to live, or consent to – or refuse – medical treatment. The assets of a person with dementia would be controlled by the Court of Protection, regardless of his or her wishes.

That this loss of the autonomy that we all take for granted could be initiated on a shopping trip by a busybody from a supermarket, or that a decision to move one’s savings from one bank to another could involve a dementia test in the manager’s office, is unacceptable.

Alix Ramage-Hayes Nash, Buckinghamshire

Award for turning up

SIR – It seemed to me that barely 10 per cent of Members of the House of Commons were in attendance when Theresa May made her announcement relating to a public inquiry into undercover policing.

Half of an MP’s salary should be linked to actual attendance in Parliament.

Michael Fielding Winchester, Hampshire

Once more unto the dining table

SIR – General James Cowan’s comments on table manners (Letters, March 7) reminded me of a dinner party given for my husband’s staff, where a guest felt the need to scratch the back of his head with his fork before plunging it once more into his chicken.

Jan Wilkinson Norton Disney, Lincolnshire

SIR – When General Cowan is abroad on Army business, I hope that he does not lecture his hosts in the same pompous manner as he does his officers.

Gray Gilbert Fovant, Wiltshire

SIR – General Cowan neglects to draw attention to the ghastly modern habit of wearing a wing collar with a dinner jacket.

Group Captain Terry Holloway Great Wratting, Suffolk

SIR – General James Cowan is not alone in not wishing to sit next to his wife. During a Commonwealth conference I found myself sitting next to my wife for the third night in a row.

I asked the woman opposite, who was in a similar predicament with her husband, and was not unattractive, if she would like to swap places and come and sit by me for a change. The reply was a sharp and short “No thank you”.

My wife and I resorted to discussing the electricity bill for the third night running.